academy awards
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Real Talk, Viola Davis's Spontaneous Snot Bubble In Fences Should Have Won An Oscar Too
It’s been over a week since Viola Davis won her first Academy Award for her portrayal of “Rose” in Denzel Washington’s screen adaptation of August Wilson’s iconic and devastating Fences; bringing her one step closer to coveted EGOT status. Which means it’s been over a week since the biggest travesty of awards season took place. And…
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Racial Progress in Film Remains Slow Drag 30 Years After Hollywood Shuffle
Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle was released 30 years ago this year. Although it couldn’t have been noted at the time, Shuffle became a foundational film that launched the careers of two of our most prolific filmmakers and made us aware of an entire family of comedic geniuses—the Wayans family. I most remember the film for…
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Even When White People Finally Get It Right, They Still Get It Wrong
In one of the most entertaining “spontaneous” bits I’ve ever seen performed at the Academy Awards, Jimmy Kimmel allowed a group of flabbergasted and starstruck tourists into the Dolby Theater to walk past the audience. This, of course, introduced the world to #GaryFromChicago and his wife — computer generated composites of every Black uncle and…
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2017 Academy Awards Open Thread
Will Moonlight pull the upset, or will La La Land’s unstoppable celebration of cinematic Whiteness prevail? Will Uncle Denzel and Viola and Mahershala walk away with hardware? Will we have another “Hidden Fences” moment? Will Jimmy Kimmel do something — anything — funny? Let’s see!
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Who Could, Should and Will Win at the 89th Academy Awards
I have a complicated relationship with the Academy Awards. As I’ve said before, when we need the approval and validation of the dominant group in order for us to see our own work as valuable, we engage in a form of internalized racism that centers whiteness even as we engage in the subversive work of…
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Cheryl Boone Isaacs Put the Oscars on a Path Toward Diversity. Will Her Successor Continue the Trend?
Tonight’s 89th annual Academy Awards will be very different from last year’s broadcast or even the year before. In 2015 and 2016, there were no black actors or actors of color nominated in any acting categories. One of the reasons activist April Reign was so successful in launching her #OscarsSoWhite movement in protest was that…
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Watch: In Focus With Moonlight Director Barry Jenkins, Who’s Vying for Oscar on Sunday
Editor’s note: In Focus is a video series showcasing the new wave of black filmmakers. Earlier this year, before Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed film Moonlight went on to earn eight Academy Award nominations—including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay—the writer-director sat down with The Root to discuss how he got involved with the…
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Dear Oscars: Don’t Do to Moonlight What You Did to These 5 Black Films
Oscar season is upon us. On Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will honor what it deems to be the best films of 2016 during the 89th Academy Awards. After two years of #OscarsSoWhite, this year we have a record six black acting nominees, three films with predominantly black…
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#OscarsSoBlack: Finally, Some Melanin-Proficient People Receive Nominations
After two straight years of #OscarsSoWhite, in which black actors were shut out of all the acting categories, this year’s Academy Awards nominations featured so much blackness, some racist trolls on Twitter might just start calling the Oscars the BET Awards. Moonlight, director Barry Jenkins’ stunning coming-of-age tale, received a total of eight nominations (the…
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Watch: Ava DuVernay on 13th, Her Life's Work and Magnifying the Beauty of Black People
Some might call Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th prophetic. In just over 90 minutes, DuVernay traces the decisions, going as far back as the end of slavery, that led to the creation of the monstrosity known as the prison-industrial complex—and, thus, explains how it is that modern-day slavery exists. Telling the stories of black and brown…